(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an egg tray that is used to sterilize an egg or to boil the egg soft or hard, an egg tray fixer, and a method for processing the egg by using them. More particularly, the present invention relates to an egg tray in which an egg is washed, heated, sterilized, boiled soft or hard, dried, coated, inspected, and cooled to increase safety and the value of a food commodity and to increase productivity, and a method for processing an egg by using the same.
(b) Description of the Related Art
An egg is sold after it is sterilized or processed in order to cope with various and subdivided requirements of consumers that desire safe eggs that have no risk of salmonella or bird flu, in order to bring about an increase in value thereof. In the processing treatment, eggs are moved to a discrimination device and discriminated, and then they are put in egg trays and subjected to a heating process to be boiled soft or hard, thereby producing products having additional value. Problems occur when eggs are sterilized and boiled soft or hard in that, in a heating processing treatment in a gas (including steam) or liquid, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of the operation of the process and to improve the value of the commodity and the stability thereof, but this has not occurred. If the washing process of the egg is described as an example, the eggs that are put in the egg trays are washed with water or steam. At this time, the freshness is maintained, the safety is improved, and the value of the commodity is maintained by rapidly drying the liquid or the steam that includes water and the coating agent on the eggshell of the egg. However, the liquid or the steam remains in the egg tray in which the eggs are disposed or in the contact area between the egg tray and the eggs for a predetermined time. The remaining fluid damages the cuticles of the eggshell for protecting against infection by external toxic microorganisms, delays the coating process for protecting the eggs by compensating the damaged cuticles, or causes imperfect coating to increase the risk of infection by the toxic microorganisms. In addition, when they are subjected to the processing treatment by using a conventional egg tray, since it is difficult to discriminate eggs that are difficult to be commercialized such as eggs having a cracked shell, eggs in which an impurity is included at the inside or outside thereof, and rotten eggs, there are problems in that bad products are produced and the safety of foods can be reduced.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.